Shadow

Kent Allard was a spy in World War I (as well as for Tsar Nicholas before the war) as well as a famed aviator who crashed in the South American jungles. He made a fortune in that region (where he discovered a city of gold) before he returned to New York where he adopted a new identity. Allard bore an astonishing physical resemblance to a man named Lamont Cranston and used his identity while Cranston was traveling around the world.

When the two men finally met, Allard threatened Cranston, saying that he had arranged to switch signatures on various documents and other means that would allow him to take over the Lamont Cranston identity entirely unless Cranston agreed to allow Allard to impersonate him when he was abroad. Horrified at what Allard had explained to him, Cranston agreed--as much to distance himself from Allard as for any other reason.

The Shadow worked with a network of agents like Harry Vincent, his most trusted associate whose life he had saved when Vincent wanted to commit suicide, Moe Shrevnitz, a cab driver, and an operative known simply as Burbank, a radio operator who maintained contact between The Shadow and his agents. There were more of The Shadow's agents who were active and operative...but none let alone The Shadow himself knew who they were or even where they were.